Seth Faergolzia's Multibird is a curious beast - the three headed creature on the cover is just the half of it. It apparently features the pick of dozen tunes out of "a monster pile" of 35 accumulated over the previous 4 years.
The album is the work of Seth assisted by a full band that regularly plays together. It came out over a year ago but since the record is never likely to be in or out of fashion, I can console myself that the lateness of this review is not an issue.
Faergolzia was once Seth of NYC Zappa-devotees Dufus and has been the instigator/participant in numerous other projects during and since. If you're up for a challenge, there are currently 25 releases available on his Bandcamp page.
With some lateral thinking, the songs could conceivably be imagined as a leftfield soundtrack to an off-Broadway stage show but mostly the collection revels in the looseness of its structure. I'm sure there is an internal logic somewhere but I suspect that even Seth Faergolzia would be hard-pressed to locate it.
He sings like a karaoke Elvis infused with the punk spirit of Jello Biafra. There are euphoric odes to technology and the inevitable breakdown of world order but any anti-establishment thread is more about fighting for the right to party than overturning governments.
In Rubberbands we hear that the household items of the title have been carelessly (or perhaps deliberately) discarded on a railroad track threatening a serious mishap. But never fear; the songs on this album are like the oncoming train in that you have the feeling that sheer momentum will stop things going completely off the rails.
A Jeffrey Lewis cover (Roll Bus Roll) reveals Faergolzia's anti-folk roots although the freakish nature of his musical vision otherwise defies easy pigeon-holing.
If there's a theme it is that, since the world has gone batshit crazy, decorum and convention should no longer be regarded as qualities to aspire towards.
In Quing, this message is fairly cryptic ("we are the bigness, the isness not the business") but the advice to "worry about the past tomorrow" (Hand Up Its Butt) seems clear enough especially given that "A plan is not the answer" (Landscaper).
After a whistled intro, the fevered vocals of Riot advise listeners that "we're entering the age of reason / never better time for leaving".
Relax and embrace the madness and mayhem appears to be the thrust of it all. Far be it from me to be counted among the naysayers.
